Artists will be able to "see engagement stats for both [ad and premium] tiers in Spotify for Artists just like before, and your customizable Artist's Pick and About Page will display to both types of users", a company memo stated. These on-demand playlists will be unique to you, based on your musical tastes, and may include Spotify-curated playlists ranging from RapCaviar and Viva Latino to Ultimate Indie and Alternative R&B as well as personalized playlists like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daily Mix. Whereas with a Premium subscription you could play any song you wanted whenever you wanted, Free members would be forced to hit the shuffle button if they wanted to play music.

Additionally, Spotify said that the app would now assist users in creating their own playlists by recommending songs similar to those they've already added.

Spotify, based in Stockholm, uses its free tier to bring in listeners it can convert to paying subscribers.

He also told a story about Shawn Mendes' label, Island, wanting to restrict his last album to the paid tier, but were won over by the number and enthusiasm of the users on the free tier.

By improving the free experience enough to keep people hooked, Spotify could effectively convince many more users to buy into their monthly subscription.

Here's a look at the new features announced today. Previously, users in the free tier were only allowed to shuffle songs that are part of playlists.

The new Spotify app version should be available soon on the App Store.

Spotify's also aware that the mobile experience hasn't changed since the app launched in 2014, and that data caps play a huge role in what you listen to. "It's where 60 percent of paid users start out", said Söderström at an event in NY.

Most of us can't live without using a media service these days, but generally anything free is delivered with compromises.

The app now gives non-paying users more control over their music by letting them listen to playlists in any order. The changes will be rolling out to all it's users over the newxt few weeks. The old gimped mobile experience was a good way to push users to pay for Spotify Premium, but it never made much sense, especially when the desktop apps didn't have the same limitations.